Switch



Aug. 17 1926.

v F. A. KENNEY SWITCH Filed May 28. 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet l 1mm W lllll Wl mum atfoi M11 Auz'. 17 1926 F: A. KENNEY SWITCH 2 Sheets-Sheet, 2

Filed May 28, 1925 imiiiir'f Qi /M gvmnwtoc f A Keir/neg.

Patented Aug. 17, 1926.

F T FFIC WH I DEN/IVER, coLoRAno. i

Mention 1196} Kay 28, 1925. Serial No. 33,441,

This invention rel to improvements in the construction of switehesof thetype used for controlling the a: ights of automobiles.

It is customary to provide automobiles with two headlights,- a-rear ortail light and sometimes a light or cowl lights. is is; of course,necessary to provide means for controllingtheselights so that they maybe'turued on or of! at will and so that the intensitg of' illuminationof the head'- liglhts may 'e varied.

t is the objocti of this invention to produce a switch that shall be soconstructed shut it can be used so control the illumination of thercarortail light, the perlrim light and the two headlights. This switc is soconstructed that the rear or tail light andfthe parking lights can beilluminated while the headlightsare not, and which will maintain therear light lit whenever the headlights are lit. In uddition this switchis provided with means whereby both of the headlights maybe burned atmaximum intensity, or one may be dimmed while the other still burns atmaximum. brillianey and which permits bothlieadlights to be dimmed atthe some time.

It is a further object to produce aswitch that can be employed withordinary single filament lamps or with lamps having double filaments orwith headlights having euch two seperzrtelamps differently located;

The above and other objects that will epor as the description proceedsare obtained E; means of a. construction that will now be described indetail, reference for this urpose being bad to the acco enying wing inwhich the preferred embodiment of' my invention is illustrated and inwhich: Fig. 1 is ato planyiew of myswitch; Fig. 2 iso dmmetricel'seetiontaken on line 2-2, Fig. 1;

3 is asection taken on lin e 3 -3, Fig.

2; an shows a to planview of the stationor base mem rfofthe, switch;

igr is a sectionteken online 4 4, Fig.

2, and shows a bottom; plan view of the on a icy'iewshowin the sieyablesi teh rotatable mcmberwhich carries the movable Fig. 7 is a sectiontaken on line 7--7,

i 8 is a section takenon line 8-8, Fig.3;

Fig. 9 is a section taken on line 9-9, Fig. 8; andshows a top plan viewof the stationary bar member and Fig. 10 is a diagrammatic view showingthe manner in which the switch is. connected to the battery andtheseveral lamps.

My switch as illustratedin Figs. 1 to 6 comprises a base member 1 and arotatable member 2, both of insulating material. A casing or covermember 3 fits over the base member I and is secured thereto by suitablemeans such as the screws 4. The casing 3 has a central openingsurrounded by a. flange 5'. The rotatable member 2 is, circolor and ofsomewhat smaller diameter 7 than tho ba-sel and has a centralcylindrical member 6 extending from one side. This member projectsthrough the opening, inlthe casing. A helical compression spring 7surrounds the flange 5- and produces force which tends'to move member 2against the upper surface of the stationary member 1 in a manner quiteapparent from Fig. 2. A handle 8-having a pointer 9 is secured to theouter end of the cylindrical member 6 by means of screws or rivets 10.The cover 3 hasthe following indicin printed, at angularly spacedintervals, on its outer surface, Park,D. D, Off, D. B. and B. )3.meaning respectively parking, dim dim, off, dim bright and brightbright.The upper surface of base member 1 is flat except that it has twodepressions 11 and 12which are both located on the same diameter (Fig.3). Secured to the upper surface of member 1 are several .arcuntecontact members which I have designated by letters A, B, C and D and twocontact buttons E and F. The areuate contacts A, B and G are eachrovided' with an offset portion 13 which ts, into the depressions 1'1and 12. Contacts A B and G are each held in place-by two bolts 14, whilethe "contacts E nndjF may be the heads of bolts likethat indicatedFry-numeral '15 in] Fig. 5. The

under side of the rotatable member 2 a straight d i-ametriccleentactmember G held in place byiserews or rivets 16. It isailsoprovided [with a short contact member H, which is 'preferably located atright angles to the-contact Gene held, in placebo similar securing means16. lVhen the parts are assembled as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, member 2may be rotated through the medium of the handle 8 to any positiondesired. IVhen the member 2 is in the posi tion indicated by Off in Fig.1, the con tact member G lies directly above the depressions 11 and 12and does not come into contact with any of the contacts on member 1. Themanner in which the switch is connected, as well as the manner in whichit operates, can best be described when reference is had to thediagrammatic showing in Fig. 6 to which reference will now be moreparticularly had.

InFi 6 the several contact members have been shown and indicated bytheir respective reference characters. I have shown the various lightsas well as the batteries and the connection to the switch, the batteryhas one pole grounded at 17 and has its other pole connected to thecontact A by means of a conductor 18. The tail and parking lights 19 and20 are connected respectively to the contacts B and C by means ofconductors 21 and I have indicated the headlights by RH and LH whichdesignate the right and left headlight respectively. Each headlight hasone pole grounded at 23. The right headlight has its ungrounded poleconnected to the contact D by means of a conductor 2-1 and theungroundcd pole of the left headlight is similarly connected to thecontact E by means of a wire 25. resistance element 26 forms anelectrical connection between contacts C and E. Bearing in mind that thecontacts G and H are connected to the movable member 2 and are fixedwith respect to each other, we will now describe the operation of theswitch.

Vvhen contact G is in the full line position (Fig. 6) the switch is inoff position as the contact G lies directly over the depressed portions13 and does not make electrical connection with any of the contacts onthe memher 2. Let us now suppose that the contact G is moved counterclockwise to the first dotted line position. It will then makeelectrical connection with contacts A, B and C and current from thebattery will flow through the wires 18 and 21 to the tail light 19. Itwill also flow through the resistance element 26 to the contact E andthence by way of the wire 25 to LH and return to the battery throughground. The left headlight will be illuminated but'will be dim. Thecontact H which moves whenever G does, will make connection betweencontacts D and E and part of the current that flows through 26 will flowthrough wire 24 to the right headlight and to ground. In this position,therefore, both lamps will be dimmed. lVhen the contacts G and H aremoved counter clockwise to the second dotted line position which isindicated as Park the tail light and the parking lights only will belighted, If the contact G is moved clockwise to the first dotted lineposi tion, current will flow to the tail light and to both of theheadlights. flows to the left headlight will flow through the resistanceelement 26 which will cause this headlight to be dim. The current to theright headlight will pass directly from the contact G to the contact Dand this lamp will therefore be bright. hen the contact G is movedclockwise to the second dotted line position indicated by BB, both ofthe headlights will be bright. At this point I wish to call attention tothe fact that when the switch is in position designated as DD both ofthe lamps are dim and the current for both lamps flows through theresistance 26. The drop of potential through 26 is greater when theswitch is in DD position than when it is in DB position, as in thelatter position the current for the LH only flows through theresistance. The switch therefore provides three intensities ofillumination for the left hand headlight, namely, one bright and twodegrees of dim. This is believed to be a novel feature and is useful forthe reason that when the DD position is used the car is either standingstill or is driven over well lighted roads or streets where theheadlights are employed merely for the purpose of locating the positionof the car. The dim bright position is employed in passing cars at nightwhere it is merely desirable to omit objectionable glare and at the sametime illuminate the road as well as possible.

Some automobiles are provided with headlights having each two lampsdifferently located, one of which is employed when bright light isdesired and the other where a dim light is wanted, and some cars employlamps having high and low light filaments. In order that my switch shallbe suitable for controlling the lamps in either of the above cases, Ihave provided a switch of slightly modified construction which has beenillustrated in Figs. 7, 8, 9 and 10.

As the stationary and movable insulating members as well as the casing 3are identical with those shown in Figs. 1 to 6. I have designated themby the same reference numbers. The construction is also identical exceptin a few minor particulars which will be pointed out. and I shalltherefore not repeat the description. In the embodiment described above,the rotatable member 2 has two contacts G and II. In the modification,the contact II is omitted. The stationary member 1 has one morecontact'than what is shown in Fig. 3 and'this contact has beendesignated by the letter P.

It will also be noted that in Fig. 9 the contacts A and B, which corres0nd to contacts A and B in Fig. 3, are 0th on The current that tofilament Y of lamg RH. Both headlights the same side of the center. Itis, however, evident that exactly the same effect is pro duced whetherthe contacts A and 1 B are located as in Fig. 3, or as in Fig. 9.Contacts C, D, E, and F are located exactly as the correspondingcontacts in Fig. 3. The headlights have been shown as each comprising alamp having a high power filament X and a low power filament Y,

one end of each of which is connected to the ground Z. Filament Y oflamp LH is connected to the contact C by means of a conductor 27 whileconductor 28 connects the corresponding end of the filamentX with thecontact E. One end of filament Y of lamp RH is connected to the contactP by means of a conductor 29, while the corresponding end of thefilament X is connected to contact D by means of a conductor 30.

When the contact G is in the position shown by full lines in Fig. 10,the switch is in 011' or inoperative position, as the movable contactbar G is not in electrical contact with any of the conductors on menher 1. When the connector G is rotated counterclockwise to the firstdotted line position (DD) Fig. 10, it makes electrical connections withcontacts A, B, C and P current will now flow from C through conductors27 to the filament Y of the lamp LH and from contact P through conductor29 will now be dimme If the connector G is moved to the positionindicated by Park it will contact with the contact F and only the taillight 19 and parking light 20 wil be illuminated. B movin the connectorG to clockwise to the first otted line position (DB) it will contactwith A, B, C and D' and filament Y of LH and filament X of RH will bemade luminous thereby producing a dim light from the left hand lamp anda bright light from the right hand lam If the connector G is moved stillfurt er in a clockwise direction, it will contact with member E as wellas D and both lam s will be bright.

aving now described my invention what I claim as new is: I

1. An electric switch adapted to control a plurality of electricalcircuits, said switch comprisin in combination, a stationary base mem erof insulating material having a flat surface provided with one or moredepressions, electrical contacts secured to said fiat surface saidcontacts having portions offset to fit into said depressions, a secondinsulating member having a flat surface opposed to the flat surface ofthe first mentioned member, said second mentioned member beingrotatable, with respect to the first mentioned member, about an axislying in a plane passing through said depressions, a connector bar onthe second member, means for holding said member in a predeterminedrelative position and resihent means for producing a force tending tomove the second insulating member against the first.

2. A multiple circuit control switch comprising, in combination, acircular disk-like member of insulating material having a diametricaldepression in one side, a plurality of concentrically arranged arcuatecontact members secured to said member on the side which has thedepressions, some of said contacts having a portion ofiset to fit saiddepression, a second disk-like member of insulating material mounted forrotation about the axis of the first disk, said second disk having aconnector bar adapted to make electrical connection between differentcontacts on the first member and spring means for forcing the secondmember against the first member.

3. A switch, adapted to control the tail light, the parking light andthe two headlights of an automobile, comprising, in combination, asubstantially circular base member of insulating material having a fiatsurface provided with a radial depression, a plurality of concentricarcuate contact members secured to the face of said member, each of saidcontacts having an offset portion adapted to fitinto said depression, a

second disk-like insulating member, means for securing said last namedmember to the first named member in such a manner that it may be rotatedabout the axis that coincides with the center of the first member, meanscomprising a helical spring for producing a force tending to move thesecond member towards the first,said second member having a connectorbar secured to the surface adjacent to said first mentioned member.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

FRANK A. KENNEY.

